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4 Years and 4 Roommates: My Story

I remember as a college freshmen, I was very nervous to find out who my first roommate was going to be. Living with someone you don’t know can be scary. This same “fear of the unknown” is something I went through multiple times. I have had four different roommates, one for each year of school. Three out of four of these roommates were randoms.

I really have gotten lucky with roommates. My first roommate and I had a lot in common. We got along great and even had a similar group of friends. To make a long story short, there was a conflict within our group of friends and I grew apart from them. My roommate and I at the time went from being close friends to more so acquaintances. He also had a girlfriend who would never acknowledge me, no matter what I did. It got pretty uncomfortable in that room at times.

During our second semester, one of my roommate’s friends had his roommate move out, so he moved into that vacant spot, leaving me with no roommate for the rest of my freshmen year. If you have a good roommate, having your own room isn’t that much different. The room is just quieter and there’s a lot more space for activities. About this first roommate, as the years went by, we actually became closer friends and he is even my neighbor now which is really cool.

I decided to keep my freshmen year room for my sophomore year and leave it up to fate as to who would lie in the empty bed sitting in my room. Turns out, it was someone I had met weeks prior to reserving my room once again. I was happy that this new roommate was at least someone I was familiar with. My second roommate turned out to be great! He also had a girlfriend, but this time, the girlfriend actually talked to me and because she was in the room so often, she felt like a third roommate. She was great to me so I really didn’t mind.

My sophomore roommate decided that he wanted to live off campus the following year, so I had to find a new roommate because I wanted to stay in the dorms. I became close friends with a guy that lived two doors down from me, so I asked him if he wanted to be roommates with me and he agreed so long as we moved to a different residence hall. I happily agreed.

My third roommate again was great. This was the first time I didn’t have a random, so I kind of expected this. At the end of the year, I was prepared to live with him again, but he got hired to become an RA. The RA job would come with his own room, leaving the adjacent bed empty for my senior year.

So I lied above. I actually had a fifth roommate. This roommate who came in at the start of my senior year was nice. He was a junior transfer, so the whole college thing was very new to him. I barely saw him and because I was so busy, he barely saw me. After three days, he texted me, saying that school was not for him and that he was preparing to drop out. At this point, I ran from the involvement fair in the campus center back to my room and caught him right on time to say our final goodbyes.

For the following three weeks, I would have my own room once again. It was fun, but because there are more students living on campus this year, I knew it had to end eventually. I was told by a friend on my floor that there was a freshmen who was being bullied by his roommate and was looking for somewhere new to live. I had only met this guy once before, so it very much felt like taking the same plunge as when I got a random at the start of the year. I agreed to let him move in and it definitely was the right decision.

My relationship with my current roommate is different than that of my other three, and that’s not to say it’s a bad thing. My previous three roommates are in my social circle. They would be the people I would hang out with during the weekends or on a random night. This time, my roommate has his friends and I have mine. Even though this is true, we still have become very close over the course of the year. We talk a lot to each other and it’s really fun to kind of look into the life of a freshmen once again, but this time, from the perspective of having been there.

Not everyone can say that they have become good friends with their roommates. Sometimes, it just wasn’t meant to be. I feel very lucky that not only did I become friends with all four of my roommates, but I see them all on a regular basis to this day. I do not take this for granted at all. If you are a freshmen and are worried about who may move in with you, just keep an open mind. You never know who you will meet or what will happen. Its a lot of fun leaving this up to chance.

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About the Author

Adam Shear is a senior broadcasting major at SUNY Oswego. He is heavily involved at WTOP 10, the campus TV station, where he is the Segment Director for news and directs two TV shows. Shear is also the executive producer of the popular talk show 4 Guys in a Booth on the campus radio station WNYO as well as a teaching assistant for BRC 108: Into to Mass Media and BRC 222: Intro to New Media. When he actually has some spare time, Shear enjoys everything from hanging out with friends to playing video games. You can follow Adam Shear on Twitter via @AdamShear where he tweets a lot about video games and sometimes about life.